Rin, a full-on striker, became a ruler on the field. His teammates are his pawns. Move them well, and if they get to the goal, you win. Rin lures the enemies away and takes them down. He let them get caught in his fake shots. He pretends to go by himself then outwits them with his pass. By letting them misread him, he always gets ahead of them. It also meant that the dimension of his thinking was getting higher and higher. He carried out the game according to the plot he had drawn up. Not impulse, but thinking. His playstyle has changed, but not what's in his mind.
Ah, if only Nii-chan was here.....
He still thinks the same as when he was in grade school.
Sae was not only cool, but also kind. He taught him how fun soccer is and bought him ice cream. It was Sae who trained and made Rin a striker.
I want to play soccer with him again. I want to shoot with Nii-chan's pass.
This thought is always in Rin's mind. That is why it is necessary to completely seal off his impulse now. The obsession with scoring goals and the ego as a striker are not needed in this team. Besides, this style of play was very well received by adults, including their manager.
"Rin finally understands how to be a team player! Making the most of your teammates and contributing to the team! That's what Japanese soccer is all about!"
That's what the Japanese like to see. Team play, rather than individual skill, is praised more often than individual performance. Even for his teammates, Rin is now a "dependable ace".
One day after practice.
"Recently, Rin has changed. He's properly paying attention to his surroundings while playing", said a guy who's a forward while munching on a piece of a convenience store bought chicken.
While Rin stays out late for his routine free practice, the rest of his teammates go to a convenience store to buy something to to eat before going home.
"He really did change. He's indeed Sae's younger bro. He's really talented, isn't he?" said the guy who was eating a frankfurter.
"But, you don't really know what he's thinking, right?" asked the guy who had bought tuna mayo onigiri while peeling off the film from the package.
"Well, he doesn't talk much. It's kinda scary." the guy who had been eating potato chips sneered.
Rin's attitude toward soccer is so stoic that it is very intimidating to be around him. If they try to frolic around during practice, he'll give them a death stare.
"You know what... I...", the quy who was eating melon bread mumbled.
"The other day... I saw Rin at a station in Enoden*..."
*江ノ電/Enoden stands for Enoshima Electric Railway (Enoden is shortcut for Eno Densetsu) is private railway in Japan which connects Kamakura Station in Kamakura with Fujisawa Station in Fujisawa, Kanagawa. (Source: Wikipedia) The last station is Kamakura (probably the location of Rin's soccer club coz Kamakura Youth Club).
"Is that because he gets on Enoden?"
"Rin..... was being spoken to in English by some foreign tourists. They seemed to be asking about the station they were going to get off at."
"Yikes. I'm sure that's tough for him. He can't study at all, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. He's a total idiot!"
But he clutched the melon bread tightly and said with a pale face as if he had seen a ghost.
"He...answered in English without any difficulty, then the tourist said something like "Thank you! Thank you!".... He actually..... speaks fluent English....!"
"You're kidding, right?"
Everyone stops and stares in wonder. So that's why. The school test is so hard that they want to shut their eyes, but Rin actually speaks English like a native. He wanted to understand live soccer commentary in English, so he did his best.
"He's really amazing....."
His teammates were astonished by Rin's unfathomable talent.
Thus, he entered the third year of junior high school. Finally, the Japan Club Youth Championship (U-15) began, a battle that Rin absolutely could not lose. Because of this, he's into Japanese horror these days. It's not showy, but it's slowly getting scarier and scarier. He thought he was going to scream when he saw a female ghost peeking through a gap in the fusuma.* He's so glad he doesn't have a fusuma in his room.
*ふすま/Fusuma is a Japanese sliding screen.
.....Come to think of it, I haven't liked horror movies since Nii-chan went to Spain.....
In bed, he dozes off and ponders. Perhaps it's because those feel-good shots that had been made with Sae's passes were gone, that he sought a stimulating alternative. Back then, soccer gave Rin agitation and immersion. He was so absorbed that he forgot about himself and just gave in to his impulses, wildly and almost maniacally aiming at the goal. Every day was exciting enough to make him quiver. When you get chills from a horror movie, you release a hormone called adrenaline. Adrenaline increases heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels, and you become less agitated and less likely to feel pain or fatigue. In other words, it puts you in fight-or-flight mode. For Rin, perhaps the adrenaline from watching horror movies replaced the agitation and tension of playing soccer for impulse. For whatever reason, he is now a horror movie fanatic.
Tomorrow is the tournament's first game..... We'll definitely win.
With determination, he closed his eyelids.
Rin and his team, Kamakura United Youth, were doing well, winning in the tournament. They won the semi- finals by a score of 2-0, taking back the power of their heydays, and returned to the locker room with bright smiles on their faces.
"We did it! Rin, we're counting on you for the finals! Pass me a good one!", the teammate who scored the second goal tapped him on the shoulder.
"Sure."
This is fine. Even in the next one, he just has to control the game thoroughly. Rin clenched his fist.
And then at last, the Finals. Kamakura United Youth vs. Kashima Angolmois Youth.
"We're gonna win for sure!"
"Alright! I'm gonna score another goal today!"
While his teammates were fired up, Rin was alone on his phone.
Nii-chan's trending on Twitter.....!
#レ・アール系師 (#RealltoshiSae)
He scored a hat trick at Real Madrid's youth team match. How amazing that is for a Japanese. Soccer fans on Twitter are so excited that they've lost their vocabulary saying how insane, awesome, and strong he is. Jumping from trends to articles, he found a feature on Itoshi Sae as "the player who will be the future of Japanese soccer".
Nii-chan's on his way to becoming the best striker in the world!
He won't lose to those top players overseas. If he wins this match, he too.....! He feels even more excited.
"Let's qo, Rin. It's time."
When the manager called him out, Rin stood up.
"Yes."
On the passage leading to the field, Rin squinted his eyes as the light coming in from the outside was too bright. Beyond the light is the battlefield of the decisive battle.
It's the first waypoint of my promise to Nii-chan. Win this match and I'll go after Nii-chan...!